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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/28301796">last Christmas I gave you my heart</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/hackingxbiochemist/pseuds/hackingxbiochemist'>hackingxbiochemist</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Legacies (TV 2018)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Angst with a Happy Ending, Christmas, Christmas Eve, Christmas fic, Established Relationship, F/F, Hosie, Mutual Pining, Unrequited Crush, a bit of Posie, mentioned Handon, mentioned jandon</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-12-25</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-12-25</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-10 14:27:33</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>11,598</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/28301796</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/hackingxbiochemist/pseuds/hackingxbiochemist</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>A glimpse of five Christmases through the years between Hope and Josie.</p><p>or</p><p>4 times of Hosie concealing their feelings + 1 time they finally tell the truth</p><p>or</p><p>the Hosie one-shot Christmas fic nobody asked for</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Hope Mikaelson/Josie Saltzman</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>12</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>136</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>last Christmas I gave you my heart</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>first of all let me wish you guys a very Merry Christmas! May you all have a great day ahead, let me make your day better with a Hosie Christmas fic that actually got out of hand :/</p><p>If you're following my TS inspired song fic, I've told you that I'm going to make a one-shot Christmas fic so here you go! i will be updating my other fic maybe sometimes in the next several days. meanwhile, please enjoy this fic.<br/>truthfully, i was only planning to make a 5k words fic but dang it my hands and brain betrayed me so I ended up with an 11k words fic instead that I just finished at 3 am. please bear with the typos or weird sentences since this is unbeta'd.</p><p>lastly, please enjoy the fic, hope you like it! &lt;3</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <strong>December 24<sup>th</sup> 2026</strong>
</p><p>
  <em>(Hope 14/Josie 12)</em>
</p><p>12 year-old Josie is looking at the snow falling as she holds two mugs of hot cocoa with marshmallow with both of her hands. She inhales the smell of cocoa in the mug on her right hand and smiles contentedly at the sweet aroma and she can faintly smell fresh-baked cookies from the kitchen, it’s truly her favorite time in the whole world. Her mom is home and their family can gather together to celebrate Christmas, she can hear her mom and Lizzie chattering as they bake cookies and her dad is cooking dinner. Why isn’t Josie helping them in the kitchen? Well that’s a good question. She <em>is </em>actually helping. Her mom made hot cocoas and told her to distribute it to the kids who are not coming home for Christmas. There aren’t actually a lot of kids that stay behind for the holiday and it is Caroline’s mission this year to ensure that they have a great and warm Christmas together with the Saltzman-Forbes family in the dorm. And so, Josie gave out the hot cocoas to her friends who are staying at dorm, there are only five students who didn’t go home for the holiday. First Josie gave two mugs for Alyssa and Zoey who are sitting by the fireplace. Then Josie get back to the kitchen and bring two more mugs for M.G. and Jed who are reading comics in their room. And lastly, there’s only one more person left for Josie to give the hot cocoa for, it’s Hope Mikaelson.</p><p>It’s just a few months ago when Josie finds out that Hope’s real name is Hope Mikaelson, she’s the daughter of Klaus Mikaelson and Hayley Marshall. Klaus, the Original vampire and Hayley the hybrid alpha of the Crescent pack. Josie found out about it when she accidentally eavesdropped her mother’s conversation with a man whom Josie later realized, was Klaus. They were talking about Hope and something about the Hollow that Josie didn’t quite understand, but hearing Hope’s name, Josie can’t help but listened in the conversation because Hope has been absent for about two months. From the conversation, Josie knew that Hope’s mother, Hayley, died but Josie didn’t hear the details. Josie can’t help but imagine the pain Hope was in and she kept listening in the conversation.</p><p>The last time Josie saw Hope, she was trying to get out of the campus ground with Roman—Josie hated that boy, everyone thinks he’s charming but Josie thinks he’s cocky and annoying—Hope, of course didn’t notice that Josie watched her and Roman got out of the campus ground through the forest. Since then Josie didn’t see both Hope and Roman again, every time she asked her dad about the two of them, her dad just said that Hope was having a family issue and Roman transferred to another country. Josie knew that her dad was lying and it has something to do with Hayley’s death but every time Josie asked about Hope, her dad changed the topic of their conversation.</p><p>The next time Josie saw Hope, she and Lizzie was told to siphon this thing called the Hollow. There were bags under her eyes and she looked miserable, Josie’s heart felt like it was squeezed when she saw Hope’s condition. She tried to smile at Hope but Hope didn’t seem to notice, she was preoccupied with the danger they were in. It was not until several weeks later that Josie found out that Klaus also died, along with Elijah, Hope’s uncle, in sacrificing themselves to save Hope and New Orleans. When Josie heard the news, she cried, she can’t imagine how much pain Hope’s in, she just lost her mom and now she lost her dad and uncle. Josie found herself empathizing deeply with Hope’s pain, all she wanted to do is just to make sure that Hope’s okay but she can’t do that because she doesn’t know how to get in touch with Hope.</p><p>The news about the death of not only one, but two Originals spread like a wildfire and everybody at school started gossiping about Hope and her family. Josie really hated it when people were saying bad things about Hope and even they seemed relieved with Klaus and Elijah’s deaths. They were talking about how the “Great Evil” is defeated at last and how the world will be a better place without two Originals in it. Josie can’t understand why people could be that mean, they don’t even know Hope and her family. Yes, Josie can’t say that she knows Hope’s family that well but she heard stories Hope told her about them even though when Hope told her about her family, Josie didn’t know that they were the Originals family, the oldest vampire clan in the world. Hearing other students at school badmouthed Hope and her family only infuriated Josie, she tried her best to keep quiet because she was afraid of speaking up and most of the students who talked about Hope and her family was mostly older than her but it was getting out of hand, they were making up stories, especially about Klaus.</p><p>From what Josie gathered and experienced, Klaus was not a mean, vile and heartless hybrid who was portrayed as the Great Evil on their books. When Josie heard her mom spoke with Klaus, he was speaking gently and Josie knew that Klaus really cared about his family, especially Hope. He was not heartless. If Klaus was heartless, he won’t give a care in the world about his family and he obviously wouldn’t come to Caroline asking for her help. Then Josie got the chance to meet with Klaus even though not in the best situation, but only from meeting him in such a short time, Josie could tell that he was a gentleman and he really loved his family. Klaus greeted and thanked her for helping his family and there was nothing that could convince Josie that he was really the Great Evil that was portrayed in her History book. When Josie heard that Klaus and Elijah sacrificed themselves, she was mad at people who still have the nerves to make up stories that they died as cowards or they were attempting to summon a great power to control the world but it went wrong. Josie knew in her heart that Klaus Mikaelson was a selfless and compassionate man who loved his family very much; Josie didn’t care anymore on what was written on her History book and what people said. So when Josie heard that Hope will be soon coming back to school, she was thinking of ways to stop people from saying bad things about Hope and her family because she knew it will hurt Hope more if she hears about it. </p><p>Josie was frustrated when she didn’t know what to do, she’s not a good speaker like Lizzie who could convinced people easily with her opinion, she haven’t learn enough spell to set fire to the whole cafeteria so school will be stopped for a while and maybe people will forget about it when they came back. Suddenly Josie got an idea and she knows what she should do. She snuck around quietly to the library and hoped no one will catch her. After she finished doing what she set out to do, Josie smiled proudly and hurried back into her room. Her heart was beating really loud from the fear of being caught, but thankfully she made it to her room and she steadied her breathing.</p><p>The next day, Hope returned and everybody at school was talking about her. Josie frowned when she realized what she did yesterday didn’t work in stopping people from talking about Hope and her family. She saw Hope sitting alone at lunch and Josie really wanted to stop by and offer her condolences but Lizzie was glaring at her every time Josie got enough courage to walk over to Hope. Josie was mad at herself, why can’t she be brave and approach Hope, why was it so hard to just move her feet several feet and talk to Hope? Josie then remembered her clumsiness around Hope and her inability to talk much. Sometimes Josie wished she could be as talkative as her sister but sadly she isn’t her sister and she can only keep things inside. However, Josie remembered the students who said bad things about Hope and her family, she remembered the pain Hope’s in and Josie can’t actually imagine how hard it is to lose both of her parents in such a short span of time; all of those reasons strengthened her determination to talk to Hope. So Josie waited until Lizzie finished her lunch and she ate really slowly on purpose. When Josie just finished her salad Lizzie has got up from her seat, Josie was relieved that her plan worked.</p><p>“Josie, are you sick?” Lizzie asked worriedly.</p><p>“No, I’m fine. Why would you think that?” Josie answered nonchalantly though her heart is pounding so fast.</p><p>“You are eating really slow today. Even slower than M.G., he’s usually like a snail when he eats.” Lizzie nodded toward M.G. who has finished his juice and about to get up from the lunch table.</p><p>“Hey! That’s not true!” M.G. denied as he looked around the room where most people have left their tables, “Oh, it’s actually true. Sorry.” M.G. scratched his head sheepishly as he got up and followed Lizzie.</p><p>“Jo, come on we’re going to be late for class!” Lizzie exclaimed as she tapped her foot impatiently.</p><p>“Go ahead, Liz. I just felt really full and it’s a shame if I didn’t finish this lunch. Not all people have the privilege to get a meal. Just so you know people in-“</p><p>“Okay, okay, I get it Jo. Geez…” Lizzie rolled her eyes, “I’ll be going first then, don’t be late or I won’t save you a seat!”</p><p>Josie only gave Lizzie a thumb up and a smile, she was relieved that Lizzie didn’t get too inquisitive. When Josie was about to stand up and approached Hope, Mr. Williams came into the cafeteria and he clapped his hands to gather the remaining students’ attentions.</p><p>“Good afternoon students, can those of you who went to the library yesterday report to me? There has been a case of vandalism and we are trying to find out who’s behind it. As you know, our school has a strict rule against vandalism so those of you who might know about what happened yesterday in the library, please come find me. That’s all, thank you.” Mr. Williams scanned the room to look for students with guilty expressions then he exited the room.</p><p>Josie’s heart felt like it’s going to burst right there and of course she pretended to clean up her tray when Mr. Williams was scanning the room so Josie wouldn’t get caught. Josie put her tray as she exhaled in relief then suddenly a voice appeared behind her and she yelped in surprise.</p><p>“What happened in the library?”</p><p>Josie turned around so fast and she was mortified when she saw that Hope was standing behind her, asking her what happened yesterday. All of the color in Josie’s face was gone and she panicked.</p><p>“Uh, I don’t know. How should I know?” Josie quickly carried on as she threw her trash.</p><p>“Oh. I just thought you knew because you like going to the library.” Hope’s voice deflated.</p><p>“Um. Okay, I don’t know. I’m late for class. Bye.” Josie scurried away from Hope like a mouse chased by a cat.</p><p>On her way to the classroom, Josie cursed at herself internally. Real good job in talking to Hope, Josie. And now she will think that you won’t talk to her because you find out that she’s a Mikaelson, just like everyone else.  Josie wanted to scream at her own awkwardness, why can’t she talk to Hope like a normal person? If those blue eyes didn’t distract her, Josie will of course be able to talk to Hope. So Josie is definitely blaming Hope’s blue eyes for it.</p><p>Since her failed attempt to talk to Hope, Josie kept failing again and again. When she got enough courage, something will interrupt her from talking to Hope. And when she was alone with Hope, her mouth and brain always failed her. Josie was sure now that Hope thinks Josie was avoiding her because of her last name and so Hope  slowly started avoiding Josie too. That hurts Josie so much but she can’t even do anything about it. Now’s the time for Josie to make up for all of it. She has mustered up enough courage to talk to Hope and it seems that luck is on her side when her mom told her to give out the hot cocoas to her friends. Of course, Josie is saving Hope’s portion for the last one to give because she wanted some time to talk to her and this might be a perfect chance to start a conversation with Hope.</p><p>Josie stared outside the window and she saw Hope sitting on a bench, in the middle of the falling snow. Hope’s auburn hair stand out in the middle of the white scenery and Josie can’t help but admire how beautiful Hope is. Josie knew that it was stupid but only recently she admitted to herself that she has a big, fat crush on Hope Mikaelson and it embarrassed her because Lizzie and her friends might find out about it. And one main reason she doesn’t want to admit it is what if Hope finds out? What if Hope avoids Josie because of the crush?</p><p>Josie is deep in her thoughts when she hears Lizzie faintly calling her name. Oh no. If Lizzie approaches her, it will ruin a perfect chance to talk to Hope. It’s now or never for Josie. So Josie quickly goes out before Lizzie can find her. Wow, it is actually really pretty outside but really cold. How does Hope hold out in the middle of all this? Josie feels a bit stupid because she forgets to wear gloves since she abruptly walk out of the door. It’s too late to turn back inside now, the hot cocoas are starting to turn into iced chocolate if Josie didn’t hurry.</p><p>When Josie approaches Hope, the girl looks lost in her own thought, her eyes are staring at the vast white landscape ahead and Josie could see the pain in her eyes even though Hope’s face are void of any expression.</p><p>“Hey, Hope.” Josie calls out carefully, not wanting to startle the girl.</p><p>Hope seems to get out of her trance and she looks a bit surprised to see Josie beside her, “What are you doing here?”</p><p>“Here,” Josie hands out a mug to Hope, “my mom made her famous hot cocoa, it was actually my Nana’s recipe.”</p><p>“Thank you,” Hope receives the mug, “want to join me?” she asks Josie as she scoots a bit so Josie can sit.</p><p>Josie sit down quietly and takes a sip of her hot cocoa, no, it’s now a lukewarm cocoa because of the cold winds that are blowing very strongly. Josie tries to say something but she abruptly closes her mouth because she keeps forgetting what she’s going to say. They sit in silence for some time and at last Josie finds herself able to speak some words to Hope.</p><p>“Aren’t you cold?” Josie asks nervously.</p><p>“Not really. My wolf runs hot.” Hope shrugs her shoulder.</p><p>“Wolf?” Josie can’t stop herself from blurting out her question because she just remembers that Hope has turned on her werewolf side when she was in New Orleans. Josie really hates herself right now.</p><p>“Yeah, I’m a werewolf now, remember? Triggered my cruse, killed an innocent person?” Hope said says with a bitter tone.</p><p>“I-I’m sorry, I just, I didn’t mean it that way, I don’t mean anything, I’m sorry,” Josie is profusely apologizing for her stupid mouth.</p><p>“Josie, I know you didn’t mean it. I’m sorry, it was a reflex, it’s like my self-defense mechanism, you know? Since…” Hope doesn’t finish the rest of the sentence. “Wait, you’re asking me if I don’t get cold but you’re the one who’s sitting here without any gloves.” Hope looks at Josie’s bare hands that are now starting to feel numb because of the cold.</p><p>“Oh, yeah. I forgot.” Josie answers as she rubs her palms to make it warm. Hope directly takes off her left hand’s glove and gives it to Josie. “Wear this. Your hand must be numb right now.”</p><p>“Nah, I’m okay.”  Josie tries to reject Hope’s offer because she feels bad that Hope’s left hand will get cold.</p><p>“Jo, I insist.” Hope says sternly as she grabs Josie left hand and put the glove on for her, Josie panics and pulls her hand abruptly, “ I can do it myself.”</p><p>Josie realizes that her action will make her seem rude and she says, “Your left’s hand will be cold then.”</p><p>“As I said before, my wolf runs hot. So I’m okay, really. And I can just put my hand inside my jacket’s pocket. Look, it’s warm.” Hope demonstrates what she told Josie then she takes her left hand out and offers it to Josie.</p><p>“Put your hand here.” Hope wiggles her fingers motioning for Josie’s hand.</p><p>“Why?”Josie asks confusedly.</p><p>“I’ll keep it warm for the both of us since we only have a pair of gloves and two pair of hands.” Hope raises her left eyebrow with a poker face.</p><p>“Oh, um. I’m okay.” Josie refuses because she doesn’t expect to hold hands with Hope Mikaelson. It’s not an ideal scenario, but still, Josie will be holding Hope’s hand. What if her hands are clammy and wet?</p><p>“Come on Jo. I don’t bite.” Hope says playfully and then she quickly takes Hope right hand and intertwined it with her left hand then in one swift move she puts their intertwined hands in her jacket pocket.</p><p>Josie looks away as she tries to hide her blush; her cheeks are very hot even though the winds are blowing coldly around her. Hope Mikaelson is holding her hand and this is not a dream. Josie can’t help but smile at Hope’s gesture and holding Hope’s hand maybe Josie’s favorite thing to do now. Hope doesn’t say anything and Josie is still hiding her face from Hope because she doesn’t want Hope to see her face red as a tomato.</p><p>“You know, I haven’t got the chance to offer my condolences to you. I’m truly sorry for your loss, Hope.” Josie gathers up enough courage to say what she’s been meaning to say to Hope for these several weeks.</p><p>Hope doesn’t directly answer Josie but she can feel Hope’s grip on her hand tightened. “Thanks, Jo.” Then she continues, “I’m sorry for lying about my identity. I swear everything I told you about my family is real but I just never mention their names.”</p><p>“You know, I don’t believe what people said about you and your family.” Josie tells Hope.</p><p>“You should believe them,” Hope pauses for a while, “I’m a tribrid, an abomination and death follows me everywhere I go.” Hope speaks bitterly. “And I know too well that my family has caused a lot of troubles for your parents and their friends. You must really hate me when you find out.”</p><p>“I don’t care, Hope. I don’t care if your last name was Marshall or Mikaelson. You’re my friend and that’s all I care. You’re amazing, pretty and kind. And I don’t think that your family is terrible. I think your father really loved you and he was kind. Your mother was pretty and she always gave me a warm hug when she visited you. To me, what your father and uncle did was really brave and selfless. I don’t care what people are saying about your family. I stand by what I know and no one can change my mind.” Josie runs out of breath when she finishes her long rant. She is surprised with herself that she’s able to speak this long toward Hope and moreover telling Hope about her opinion of the Mikaelsons. Josie inhales shakily because she doesn’t know how Hope will response.</p><p>After a few minutes of silence, Josie hears a soft sniffle and she’s scared. Oh god, she must mess up, she must said something wrong. Why is Hope crying?</p><p>“Hope, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to upset you. I’m sorry if I said something wrong.” Josie apologizes again because of her careless rant.</p><p>Hope chuckles, “No, Josie. You didn’t say anything wrong. I’m just surprised that to hear that you think highly of my family. You know, since people found out about me and my family, all I’ve been hearing these past weeks were insults, made-up stories and terrible things. I was starting to believe that maybe it’s better off if I stopped coming here. Now, I can’t go home because being home just makes me think of my parents and my uncle and how it’s my entire fault. So when I heard what you said, it just makes me miss them.” Hope squeezes Josie’s hand gently, “Thank you for saying all of those things. It means a lot to me.”</p><p>“I-I’m just telling you what I feel. That’s all.” Josie blushes again at what Hope said to her.</p><p>Silence once again encompasses them and they sit comfortably as they watch the snow falling around them. Their hands seem to fit perfectly together and Josie’s glad now that she forgets to wear her gloves.</p><p>“Oh, Josie, I’ve been meaning to ask you, did you know anything about the vandalism thing that Mr. Williams mentioned a few weeks ago?” Hope asks Josie.</p><p>“Yeah, what about it?” Josie asks innocently, pretending to have no idea on what Hope’s talking about.</p><p>“Didn’t you hear what happened?” Hope scrunches her eyebrows and watches Josie carefully.</p><p>“Nope, what is it?” Josie pretends to be confused.</p><p>“They said that somebody burn some pages from the History books.” Hope tells her.</p><p>“What?! That must be awful, who would do that?” Josie exclaims surprisedly.</p><p>“I don’t know.” Hope shrugs her shoulders, “But whoever it is, I don’t know whether to thank them or be mad at them.”</p><p>“Why?” Josie asks cautiously and she averts her eyes from Hope’s.</p><p>“Yeah, they only burned off the part about the Great Evil from all the History books you can find in the library. I don’t know how I should feel about that.” Hope seems like she’s holding a smirk inside.</p><p>“Oh…” Josie says softly, “That’s too bad.” </p><p>When Josie turns her gaze back at Hope, the girl is smiling brightly at her.</p><p>“Why are you smiling?”</p><p>“Nothing.” Hope tilts her head slightly as she calls out, “Josie?”</p><p>“Yeah?”</p><p>“Merry Christmas’ Eve.”</p><p>“Merry Christmas’ Eve, Hope.” Josie answers as she smiles warmly at the older girl.</p><p>They both continue sitting in silence for a while, enjoying each other’s company in the middle of the snowfall.</p><p> </p><p>
  <strong>December 25<sup>th</sup> 2027</strong>
</p><p>
  <em>(Hope 15/Josie 13)</em>
</p><p>It’s Christmas morning and Hope doesn’t feel joyful at all. Lately it’s been hard for her to control her emotions and she needs to just wolf out in order to calm herself down. Most of the teachers at school are worried about her, especially Professor Saltzman. After the death of her father, Professor Saltzman seems to pay attention more to Hope and they started training daily so Hope could channel her extra wolf energy into something better than wolfing out all the time.</p><p>The past year has been a bad year. Last Christmas was lonely because Hope can’t stand going back home since it has been a while after her parents’ and uncle’s death. Now, Hope wanted to spend her Christmas in New Orleans with her family but it seems that something big is happening in New Orleans. Hope contacted Aunt Freya and offered her help but she told Hope to stay at the dorm for Christmas. If things are over by Christmas, her aunt will call her, Hope was waiting for her aunt’s call but when she did, her aunt told her that she’s sorry that Hope couldn’t come home. Hope tries her best to hide her disappointment but it has been a crappy year and the fact that she couldn’t see her family on Christmas really sucks.</p><p>To be honest, this Christmas will be lonelier than the last one. It’s true that last year’s Christmas, Hope was angry at herself for causing her parents’ and uncle’s death but at least she still has Josie. Now, Josie won’t even look her in the eyes or talk to her. Hope scoffs bitterly of how different things are now, she still remembers last year’s Christmas’ eve when she held hands with Josie as they sat and watched the snowfall. How could she forget it? That was probably the most memorable thing on last year’s Christmas.</p><p>Hope doesn’t know what went wrong, things started going downhill after last year’s Christmas. People kept talking behind her backs about her identity and her family, they are still not tired in making up stories about her parents’ death, Hope is slowly learning to control her feelings and she is trying so hard to ignore what they’re saying. It didn’t go so well, Hope couldn’t even count how many times she threw punches at some of the students here in Salvatore because they are badmouthing her family. Hope doesn’t care when they talked about her but when it came to her family, Hope won’t stay quiet.</p><p>That’s one of the reasons why Professor Saltzman started their extra trainings; he thought that the trainings would help Hope in channeling her anger and frustrations in a better way rather than making the students punching bags. It gets worse when Hope’s room burned down on Spring Break, she lost most of her personal belongings and even the painting she mad with her father. She was really sad when it happened and she was furious that Lizzie could even accuse her of starting the fire by herself just to get Professor Saltzman’s attention. And what hurts Hope more was the fact that Josie didn’t say anything to defend Hope, it seemed that she believed that Hope really burned down her room just to seek attention. Hope actually didn’t care when Lizzie accused her because she’d rather focus on salvaging her belongings rather than defending herself. However, Josie’s silence hurts Hope more than she knew.</p><p>After the fire, Lizzie got meaner toward Hope, she kept insulting Hope whenever she could and she was always trying to make Hope looks bad in front of Professor Saltzman. Hope didn’t even ask for Professor Saltzman’s attention instead it just causes Lizzie to give her more trouble. Dealing with Lizzie is an easy thing but what’s worse than that was Josie avoiding her, she stopped talking to Hope, she stopped smiling at Hope and Josie always stayed behind her sister if Lizzie was tormenting Hope and Josie didn’t do anything about it, she just watched and walked away without saying anything to Hope.</p><p>Hope thinks to herself, at least last Christmas she knew that Josie was on her side, but now, who is on her side? She really missed her family terribly but she can’t even come home, instead she needs to stay here at the dorm with people who hated her. Hope didn’t even know the reason why Lizzie hated her so much, Hope tried her best to tell Professor Saltzman to pay less attention to her and more to her daughters but it only made the situation worse. It didn’t fix anything, Lizzie’s torments are getting worse and Josie still sits by and ignores her. They only talked if they were doing assignments or practicing spells, but other than that, Josie never talks to Hope. When they did talk last Halloween, Josie was starting to warm up to Hope but then Lizzie caught them both laughing with each other and she told Hope to get away and Josie didn’t even stopped her. That actually really hurts.</p><p>At least with Josie, Hope knows that she has somebody to count on and somebody to make her smile but now Hope’s feeling as lonely as ever, she’s starting to think that she’s going to hate Christmas starting from this year. Things aren’t getting better, instead they are getting worse to the point Hope felt like she’d rather locked herself up in her room and not bother coming to the Christmas dinner. Professor Saltzman invited her to join the Saltzman-Forbes family and friends Christmas dinner; Hope knew when she wasn’t being wanted so she needs to think up some excuse so she doesn’t have to go. The people who will be attending the dinner are those who didn’t have a really good history with her family, Hope’s not sure how they will react if they found out that Hope was attending the dinner. So she decided not to ruin any plans and she is now thinking hard of an excuse to not go while lying on her bed.</p><p>Suddenly Hope hears a knock on her door and when she opens it, she can find no one there, Hope’s just about to close her door when she notices that there’s a plate of cookies and a glass of milk placed on the floor with a piece of folded paper above the cookies.</p><p>Hope looks around for signs of who was dropping the cookies but the corridor is empty and silent, she stops looking and takes the cookies and milk inside her room. She sets the plate and glass on her desk and opens the folded paper. Inside it there’s a typed message:</p><p>
  <em>Finish your cookies and milk and come by the bench.</em>
</p><p>Even though the person didn’t sign their name on the paper, Hope instantly knows that it’s Josie who writes her the note. After almost a whole year ignoring her, why is Josie sending her this kind of notes? Hope takes a bite of the cookie and she finishes her milk and she hurriedly go to the bench. Hope thinks that she will find Josie here but there’s no one in the area, she glances around but it’s quiet and still, Hope approaches the bench and finds a gift box with a piece of paper with her name on it. Hope opens the box and she finds a burgundy sweater inside with an envelope attached. On the envelope, Hope sees a familiar writing on it, she’s even more certain that this is from Josie. But why didn’t Josie bother to talk to her? Hope frowns as she opens the envelope, inside it she finds a Christmas card with a witty pun that makes her smile a bit and she reads Josie’s writing upon it.</p><p>
  <em>Dear Hope,</em>
</p><p>
  <em>Merry Christmas! I’m sorry for everything that happened this year. I understand if you don’t want to talk to me anymore. I hope you like the present I gave you and you can wear this to the dinner tonight. </em>
</p><p>
  <em>Sincerely, Josie</em>
</p><p>Of course Hope absolutely loves the gift Josie gave her since burgundy is one of her favorite color. However, Hope will love whatever Josie gave her, even if it is a tacky, ugly, Christmas sweater, she’ll use it if it means it could make Josie smiles. Hope is mad at herself for not being able to get mad at Josie. She actually never felt any anger toward the younger girl, Hope actually feels hurt when Josie avoids her like the plague for almost the whole year. Hope knows that Lizzie hates her but she didn’t think that Josie will also think the same thing as her twin.</p><p>Hope takes the box back to her room and on the way back she met Mrs. Forbes who is humming Christmas song excitedly as she carries boxes of Christmas decorations along the hallway. Hope quickly puts her box down and takes some of the boxes Caroline is carrying.</p><p>“Let me help you, Mrs. Forbes,” Hope says as she takes three boxes out of Caroline’s hands.</p><p>“Oh, hey Hope! You don’t have to do that.” Caroline smiles warmly at Hope.</p><p>“That’s okay, it’s my pleasure,” Hope replies as they walk together into the dining hall.</p><p>“You make me feel like an old woman now even though I’m practically immortal,” Caroline rolled her eyes.</p><p>Hope chuckles at Caroline’s remark, “Don’t worry, you don’t look a day older than seventeen, Mrs. Forbes.”</p><p>“Ah, what a charmer. Just like your dad.” Caroline smiles as she fondly remembers Klaus. Hope feels a little bit awkward because she knows that her dad and Mrs. Forbes used to have a thing. And Hope has a slight suspicion that her dad and Mrs. Forbes actually still have lingering feelings over each other. Hope saw how devastated Mrs. Forbes was when she heard about her dad’s death and since then she tried her best to check on Hope once in a while to make sure she’s okay. Weirdly, this doesn’t actually disturb Hope, she’s actually okay with Mrs. Forbes checking in on her.</p><p>Hope only smiles in response to what Caroline said and she places the box on the table. “Do you need any help with the decoration, Mrs. Forbes?”</p><p>“That’s okay, Hope. Bonnie is actually coming to help me with the decoration, Josie and Lizzie also might help, you’re welcome to help. The more the merrier!” Caroline exclaims excitedly.</p><p>Hope thinks of the prospect of decorating the hall with Lizzie’s constant badgering and Josie’s radio silence toward her, it will surely be awkward. So Hope declines politely, “Oh, it seems that you’ve got enough people to help you. I don’t want to impose; I’m actually bad at doing Christmas decorations.” Hope smiles sheepishly.</p><p>Caroline understands that Hope is only asking her about the decoration out of politeness, “Oh that’s okay. Just have some fun for the day, call your family and I’ll see you at the party tonight.”</p><p>Hope hesitates because she is actually still thinking of an excuse to not go to the party and it seems Caroline is reading her mind and she adds, “You’re coming to the party right?”</p><p>Hope panics and answers abruptly, “Yeah, yeah. I’ll see you tonight, Mrs. Forbes!”</p><p>“Okay! See you!” Caroline gives Hope a pat on her shoulder as she starts unboxing the decorations from the boxes.</p><p>Hope quickly exits the dining hall and she snatches Josie’s gift and makes her way to her room. “Stupid, stupid, stupid!” Hope berates herself as soon as she closes the door. She isn’t even planning on going to the party but Mrs. Forbes seems to compel her to come. Wait, can Mrs. Forbes compel her? Hope technically hasn’t turned on her vampire side, so is she still vulnerable to compulsion? Ugh, now she has to go to a party where nobody wants her. Except Mrs. Forbes and Professor Saltzman, maybe.</p><p>Suddenly her phone rings and it’s Aunt Freya calling her, requesting a video call. Hope accepts and the screen shows her aunt, Aunt Keelin and Vincent at the bar.</p><p>“Hey, littlest wolf! Merry Christmas!” Freya shouted a bit at the phone.</p><p>“Merry Christmas, Hope!” Aunt Keelin and Vincent says at the same time after Freya.</p><p>“Hello Aunt Freya, Aunt Keelin and Vincent, Merry Christmas to you guys too!” Hope greets them with a smile. “How is it going there? Is everything okay now?”</p><p>Vincent speaks with a grim smile, “I hope I can say that everything’s okay. But it seems the problem’s getting more complicated. I’m sorry that you can’t spend your Christmas here, Hope. Trust me, you won’t want to be here.”</p><p>Hope forces a smile because she is actually hoping that she’d rather be there to help with the problems rather than in Mystic Falls without Josie talking to her. “I wish I can help, Vincent. That’s okay, I hope next year we can celebrate Christmas together!”</p><p>“We’re so sorry, honey. We promise if this thing can be sorted out we’ll directly buy a plane ticket for you.” Keelin says to console Hope.</p><p>“That’s okay, guys! Do what you gotta do!” Hope encourages them and she knows that they really feel bad because Hope can’t come home.</p><p>“Got any big plans for today?” Freya asks her niece.</p><p>“I wasn’t planning to do anything but I got invited to a Christmas dinner by Professor Saltzman and Mrs. Forbes. I was planning to say no! But I don’t know why I told Mrs. Forbes that I was actually coming to the dinner. Can she compel me? Can I be compelled?” Hope asks in panic.</p><p>“Don’t be silly, littlest wolf. You can’t be compelled, of course.” Freya shakes her head, “But I’m glad that you said yes, it’s not good spending your Christmas all by yourself. And moreover, your friend Josie will be there right? It’ll be good for you to spend Christmas with people you love even though you can’t be with us here.”</p><p>“Uh, yeah, yeah. Sure, of course.” Hope quickly agrees with Freya, she doesn’t know about her situation right now and Hope doesn’t want her aunt to know because it will just only makes her worry more. Wait, why did Aunt Freya says ‘people you love’? Was she implying that Hope… loves Josie? Hope shakes her head at the thought because yeah she cares about Josie but she doesn’t love the girl.</p><p>“Hope?” Freya calls out, “We need to get going. We’ll update you with more info soon. Have a nice dinner and have fun please!”</p><p>“Bye, honey!” “Bye Hope, Merry Christmas again!” both Keelin and Vincent says overlapping each other because they seem to be in a hurry to get somewhere.</p><p>“Bye guys, be safe! Merry Christmas!” Hope waves her hand and she hangs up the phone.</p><hr/><p>At 6 p.m. Hope goes down from her room to the dining hall and she’s filled with dread. What if the rest of the party doesn’t want her there? But she remembers that she can goes back to her room whenever she could so she sets up an escape plan in her mind in case something went awry. Hope wears the sweater Josie gave her with black jeans and her favorite boots. There were about fifteen people on the dining hall and they are chatting with each other and Hope kinda feels the odd one out when she arrives alone.</p><p>Thank god, Professor Saltzman approaches her and greets her. “Hey, Hope. I’m glad you came.” He gives her a warm smile and leads her around, “We’ll start eating soon, here, have some appetizers first.”</p><p>Hope nods at Professor Saltzman and he starts asking Hope about her class and her attempt in self-control going. They chat for a while and then some people starts greeting Professor Saltzman and of course Professor Saltzman introduces her to other guests. Much to Hope’s relief, they didn’t treat Hope any differently when they know that she is a Mikaelson. Guess Hope’s too paranoid about her situation since it has happened to her so many times. And so Hope relaxes more as she got into conversations with other guests. Then they start to eat and Josie sits beside her, Hope is surprised that Josie also wears a burgundy cardigan that weirdly matches her sweater. Hope decides not to say anything to Josie because she’s kinda bummed out that Josie didn’t even talk to her instead she only sends Hope messages, card and present. Hope looks around and notices that Lizzie is sitting at the far side of the table beside Mrs. Forbes and she’s talking animatedly with her mother. Hope’s a bit relieve because she won’t be disturbing Hope for the dinner because she seems to ignore Hope’s presence for the night.</p><p>Suddenly Hope hears a whisper on her ear, “Nice sweater.” Josie leans in and giggles.</p><p>Hope can’t help but turn around at the girl, “Oh, this? A ghost gave me this present.” Hope replies nonchalantly.</p><p>Josie pouts at Hope’s answer and she’s so adorable when she does that, “I’m sorry.” She says softly.</p><p>“What are you sorry for?” Hope asks innocently.</p><p>Josie just shrugs and continues eating, even though they didn’t talk much, Hope enjoys Josie’s presence beside her and sometimes they look at each other and smile. Once in a while Josie comments about the food and Hope will also join in. It might be a Christmas miracle that Lizzie didn’t even bat an eye at the both of them throughout the Christmas dinner, maybe she’s just excited that her mom is here even if it’s just for a while. Josie doesn’t speak much but she stays beside Hope all night. Hope thinks that things will get better from here on out, Josie starts speaking to her again and suddenly she didn’t feel so alone anymore.</p><p>Hope decides to go back to her room on 11.40 p.m. because she’s kinda tired. Josie offers to walk her to her room and how could Hope refuse her offer? They walk slowly along the hallway and Hope stares at Josie beside her, the warmth and joy from the brunette seems to be infectious toward Hope and she finds herself smiling at Josie.</p><p>“What?” Josie asks her when she saw Hope smiling at her.</p><p>“Your aunt Bonnie made a comment about the colors of our outfit earlier.” Hope says to Josie.</p><p>Josie blushes at Hope’s remarks, “I hope you like it. I know it’s your favorite color.” She says in a soft voice.</p><p>“Of course, I like it, Josie. It’s beautiful.” Hope smiles brightly as they climb the stairs, walking in a very slow pace. “Thank you.” Hope thanks her sincerely.</p><p>Josie smiles the whole way to Hope’s room and at last they arrive in front of Hope’s room.</p><p>“Okay, good night Josie.” Hope turns toward Josie.</p><p>“Good night, Hope.” Josie replies and none of them are moving from their position until Hope then grab her door handle when Josie calls out, “Hope?”</p><p>Hope turns around quickly finds Josie in a very close proximity to her, “Merry Christmas.” she whispers with a warm smile.</p><p>“Merry Christmas.” Hope answers gently. Their eyes are locked with each other and Josie was about to say something when she hears Lizzie’s voice.</p><p>“Josiee! Time’s up!!!” Lizzie’s voice can be heard clearly throughout the second floor even she’s downstairs.</p><p>A flash of disappointment comes across Josie’s face and she jerks back from Hope, “I’m so sorry, Hope. I got to go. I’m sorry!” Josie says her voice pleading as she walks swiftly downstairs.</p><p>Hope is left alone in her room, puzzled with what just happened, why did Lizzie said time’s up? And why did Josie apologize again and again? But at least, she and Josie are now back to speaking term and Hope is thinking that this Christmas is not so bad.</p><p>
  <strong>December 24<sup>th</sup> 2028</strong>
</p><p>
  <em>(Hope 16/Josie 14)</em>
</p><p>This might be the worst Christmas ever for Josie. Her mom is not coming home and they won’t be celebrating Christmas as they usually did. Oh and her relationship with Hope are getting worse, in fact they just had a big fight last week. Josie actually didn’t mean for this to get out of hand. She knows her consequences when she decides to tell that lie and it means she needs to protect her secret at all cost. Josie can’t make the same mistake she did last year, Lizzie was very suspicious about her and Josie needs to do something to support her façade.</p><p>Last Christmas, Josie actually made a deal with her family to accompany Hope since her parents are feeling bad because Hope was spending her Christmas alone. They told Josie and Lizzie to just set down their differences with Hope for a night and just spend time with her, it’s Christmas after all. But Lizzie being Lizzie is not willing to do that so she challenged Josie in a game of rock-paper-scissor and the loser will be the one who get to accompany Hope for the night. Josie saw this as a chance for her to talk to Hope because she felt really bad that she has been avoiding Hope for almost a year and Josie realized that Hope was pretty hurt about that. Hope didn’t even know the reason why Lizzie was getting meaner by the day toward her and why Josie didn’t stand up for her. It’s very selfish of Josie but she needs to do it, it’s the only way to keep her secret safe.</p><p>And so, Josie let Lizzie beat her at the game and she got the ‘punishment’ of accompanying Hope for the night, Josie was actually really glad because she has already gotten Hope a present and she wished that Hope will wear her present. That Christmas night went really well and her parents even told Lizzie to just steer clear from Hope for the night and Lizzie miraculously obliged. However, when Lizzie started to get suspicious of Josie’s acceptance in accompanying her, Josie blurted out something just to throw Lizzie off her scent. Josie pretended to hate the ‘punishment’ and she convinced her parents to have a time limit in accompanying Hope. Her bargaining with her parents seemed to convince Lizzie that Josie was on her side. So Josie was really relieved that her plan was actually going well.</p><p>When they were at the dinner, Josie was really surprised when Hope showed up wearing her present; she could barely contain her joy and sat with Hope for the night. They didn’t talk much but it made Josie really glad. Her sister also kept true to her words and she didn’t even talk to them both for the night. They made some small talks and Josie really wanted to apologize for her behavior toward Hope but she couldn’t explain why she did it so she just kept saying sorry to the older girl. By the end of the night, Josie forgot that she has the time limit she had with Hope and of course, Lizzie ruined it by calling out to her loudly when she was in front of Hope. Why the hell Lizzie need to yell ‘time’s up”? Josie was mad at her sister and to herself because after tonight, she would need to revert into her previous demeanor toward Hope and Josie knew that Hope will surely hate her after it. But Josie told herself that it’ll all be worth it because her secret will be safe and it means keeping Lizzie away from Hope. Last Christmas, Josie was just grateful that she could spend time with Hope, even if only for a night.</p><p>By the New Year, Josie was back to ignoring and avoiding Hope and it seemed to frustrate the girl. Hope always tried to talk to her but Josie usually just answered shortly and then went away. It really hurts her inside but she can’t let her lie crumbled down. In the middle of the year, Hope stopped trying to talk to her. They only talked to each other when they need to and it was mentally exhausting for Josie. However, Josie found her escape through Penelope. Being with Penelope made Josie forgets about Hope and her awful feelings. It was actually something new and she really enjoyed her time with Penelope. They started dating not long after the Spring Break and it helped with Josie’s complicated feelings. At least now Josie has Penelope to focus on, rather than Hope.</p><p>Everything is going pretty well for Josie, she succeeded burying her feelings and she only tried to be civil with Hope and vice versa. Hope was getting colder toward her and Josie was actually feeling better because she deserved that, it will kill her if Hope was still trying to talk to her by now. Her life is starting to feel normal now even though deep down Josie knows that she is a horrible person. Well, everything seems to be fine until last week.</p><p>Josie didn’t really know the reason why Hope and her twin were fighting against each other and she didn’t know how the hell her sister could be so dumb that she blurted out about the deal Josie made with her parents last Christmas. Josie was walking toward her room from the library when she felt a hand stopped her and turned her around. In front of Josie, Hope was looking at her furiously and she yelled, “So I was just a fucking charity case for you?!”</p><p>“What are you talking about?” Josie asked even though she had a hint of what Hope might be talking about.</p><p>“Don’t act so innocent! You’re just worse than your sister!” Hope shouted, “Here I thought, you were actually different from the others but you’re just the same like them, you’re even worse! Stupid me for falling into your bullshit!” Hope’s words pierced Josie’s heart.</p><p>Josie can’t break down in front of Hope so she yelled back, “Well, someone has to do something about your brooding self that’s getting annoying so I volunteered! Nobody wanted to deal with you back then!”</p><p>Hope was taken aback at Josie’s words and hurt flashed before her eyes but she quickly rebounded and strike back at Josie, “Wow! Thank you for your selflessness; did you want an award for it?! You’re the worst of them all and I hate you, I wish I never met you!” Hope lashed out and she quickly turned around and stomped back. Before she disappeared, Josie made sure to shout loud enough for her to hear, “I hate you too!”</p><p>Their fight keeps replaying over and over again in Josie’s mind and she is actually devastated by it. She really wants to apologize to Hope but Hope’s words keep replaying in her head. Maybe it’s better for Hope if Josie didn’t apologize. Maybe they should just stay this way, hating each other.</p><p>Now, Josie is sulking on her room, not really in the mood for Christmas. She stares at the socks and chocolates she was going to give Hope as her present. It was not even her plan to give Hope any gifts because clearly they were not in a good term but M.G. just had to make them all participate in Secret Santa gifts exchange and of course, Josie has the worst luck because she draws Hope’s name. So she needs to get a gift for Hope. Josie didn’t even think through her present for Hope, she accidentally stumbled at a pair of cute socks with wolves in it and she decided to make that her present for Hope and she threw in some chocolates so her gifts won’t seem to shabby. Now, the thought of giving it to Hope just angered her. She told M.G. to just give her present on behalf of his name if Hope asked who her Secret Santa is. At least this way, Josie didn’t need to be directly involved with Hope.</p><p>It’s Christmas’ eve and Josie didn’t even bother to wait up until the clock turns twelve, she stays in her room and listen to her sad Christmas playlist. Josie then hears a knock on her room and lets her visitor comes in, it’s Penelope and she gives Josie a kiss and she turns up with a present for Josie. At least this makes her feel better. Penelope gives her a cute beanie and with that a card is attached, Josie really loves the card that Penelope get. It’s a horrible Christmas pun but Josie is amused that Penelope managed to find it funny. There’s cartoon pictures of salt and pepper that were greeting each other and above the picture was written “Season’s Greetings”. Josie thanks Penelope for the gift and especially the card and Penelope smiles and says, “It wasn’t all me. I actually had some help.”</p><p>Josie gives Penelope a kiss and at least it makes her feel better about Christmas but still, Josie’s not in the mood to stay up late so she decides to sleep early, hoping to feel better when she wakes up tomorrow.</p><p>
  <strong>December 25<sup>th</sup> 2029</strong>
</p><p>
  <em>(Hope 17/ Josie 15)</em>
</p><p>Hope can’t believe that it’s been a year since she has her big fight with Josie. She can’t believe the things that have happened since then. Her fight with Josie seems like a lifetime ago but then it’s just one year ago that she was really mad at Josie when she found out that Josie was pretending to be her friend on Christmas two years ago. That really hurt Hope and she really didn’t talk to Josie for some times.</p><p>But then, Landon came into her life and also Malivore, things are changing and Hope actually needs Josie by her side, they started speaking again when they got stuck on community service. Josie was mad at Lizzie that she threw her under the bus and Hope stood up for her. Hope didn’t know what came over her that day and she just thought that Josie’s been letting Lizzie did anything she wanted for far too long. And their quarrels resulted in doing service duties around the town. Hope wasn’t really in the mood to talk to Josie when Josie annoyingly started bombarding her with questions and Hope was afraid that if she started speaking with Josie again, she will be hurt more when Josie decided to just ignore her again. It has happened once and Hope didn’t need to feel that way again. But Hope stupidly poked herself on her foot as she snapped toward Josie and that accident resulted in them laughing at Hope’s unfortunate condition and Hope didn’t even really care anymore about her pride, she really missed speaking with Josie. Since that accident, Josie was starting to be friendlier to her and they started talking to each other again even though they didn’t talk much. Lizzie was also getting more bearable and if she was in a good mood, she can go on a day without insulting Hope. So that’s a progress.</p><p>Combating new monsters every week seem to bring them closer faster, they haven’t talk about their fight last year or about what happened on previous Christmases but Hope is really glad to have Josie back as her friend.</p><p>It’s Christmas and Hope decided to celebrate it with Josie, her family will be visiting her in the end of the year so she won’t be spending Christmas with them. And again, Hope finds herself falling back into her previous dynamic with Josie. They enjoyed each other’s companies and they decided to do spend the whole day together for Christmas because they were just stressed at the monsters that kept coming because of Malivore. Hope isn’t planning to take any breaks from fighting Malivore and it is actually Josie who practically blackmails her father for giving her and Hope and the Super Squad a break on Christmas.</p><p>Josie tells Hope that they will be going to the ice skating and then they will grab some lunch at the Grill and the rest of the day will be up to Hope. Josie will be planning their activities for half of the day and Hope will plan the rest after that. Hope is pretty excited to spend more time with Josie and take a break from all the monsters fighting.</p><p>So, here they are on Christmas day, skating around the rink, Josie holding Hope’s hands because Hope actually cannot skate so she needs some assistance to go around the rink. Their situation right now actually takes Hope back to when she was fourteen, they held hands while watching the snowfall and Hope blushes slightly when she remembers that day. After eating some delicious steaks at the Grill, it’s Hope’s turn to decide their next activities. Hope brings her back to the school and she drags Josie to the kitchen and starts gathering ingredients to make hot cocoa. Then Hope leads Josie to the bench where they sit two years ago and Josie smile widely because she remembers that time too.</p><p>After spending some time watching the snowfall and finishing their cocoas, Hope decides to just have a movie night, they’ll order food and just stay cozy under the blanket, having some quality time together. Although truthfully, Hope’s pretty tired because of the skating, but how could she, a tribrid, be exhausted just because of ice skating? That will of course ruin her reputation.</p><p>Hope lets Josie choose the movies and hooks up her laptop to Hope’s television, Hope chuckles when she sees a Barbie Christmas special in Josie’s movie recommendation. Hope doesn’t know why but Lizzie reminded her of a Barbie. Oh and speaking of Lizzie, she is currently in Europe with Mrs. Forbes so this Christmas has been pretty peaceful for Hope. They both are in their pajamas and foods, drinks and snacks are tidily lined up on Hope’s desk so they don’t have to get out of Hope’s room if they want something to eat.</p><p>Josie hums Christmas songs as she set up the movie and takes the popcorn bowl and brings it to Hope. Hope opens her blanket and pats a spot next to her for Josie to sit in. When Josie sees the socks Hope’s wearing she points out to the Hope’s feet, “Oh, you’re wearing that?”</p><p>“Yeah, it’s cold, don’t judge me. I actually like to use socks when I sleep when it’s winter. Trust me, even though my wolf runs hot, it’s still cold.” Hope defends herself because Josie is smiling at her socks.</p><p>“No, I’m not laughing at your socks.” Josie explains, “It’s just that… that’s actually my Secret Santa gift for you last year.”</p><p>“It’s impossible! M.G. was my Secret Santa!” Hope denies.</p><p>“Yeah and fortunately he was mine, I told him to tell you that he was your Secret Santa because I thought you wouldn’t be too excited to open your gift if you knew that I was your Secret Santa.” Josie confesses.</p><p>“What? You’re not kidding me?” Hope asks in disbelief.</p><p>“Of course not!” Josie answers and then she smiles proudly, “I’m glad that you like to wear it.”</p><p>“It’s so comfy Jo! I love it!” she grins like a little kid and Josie stares at Hope with a look Hope can’t decipher.</p><p>They start their first movie and of course, Josie played “Love, Actually”. Seriously, in Hope’s perspective, that movie is not a Christmas movie, why are people crazy about that movie on Christmas season? After the end credit rolls, Hope gets up to grab some water and chips for her to share with Josie. Josie presses the remote and starts another movie again, this time it’s Home Alone, Hope actually loves this movie.</p><p>“Jo, since you told me something about last year’s Christmas gift, I’m gonna tell you something too.”</p><p>“What is it?”</p><p>“You remember the card Penelope gave you?”</p><p>“Yeah, Season’s Greetings!” Josie actually chuckles when she say the writing on the cards, she must be imagining the salt and pepper waving toward each other on the card.  “Don’t say that you actually bought that card!”</p><p>“Umm.. I actually have some stocks of Christmas card with puns and then Penelope was kinda freaking about because she said she forgets to buy a card to give you, so I offered her the card and she asked me to choose the funniest one that you might like. I was actually going to give you that card, but since we were not on speaking terms, I decided not to give it to you.” Hope tells Josie, “But still, it makes its way to you even though not through my hand.”</p><p>Josie is actually surprised at this information for Hope, so they were both planning to give each other’s gifts on Christmas but their fight ruined everything. At that moment she was really glad that even so, their gifts found the way to their respective owners. Josie’s socks was wore by Hope even though Hope thought it was from M.G. and Hope’s card actually made its way to Josie through Penelope.</p><p>They both laugh at the coincidences that seems like they were in some rom-com holiday movies.</p><p>“I’m glad that you’re here.” Hope appreciates Josie’s presence.</p><p>“I’m also glad that we are talking again.” Josie smiles at Hope, “Merry Christmas, Hope.”</p><p>“Merry Christmas, Josie.”</p><p>At last, this Christmas both Hope and Josie find a way to enjoy and celebrate together as they mend their relationship.</p><p>
  <strong>December 24<sup>th</sup> -25<sup>th</sup>  2030</strong>
</p><p>
  <em>(Hope 18/Josie 16)</em>
</p><p>Hope and Josie find themselves outside under the Christmas lights as they recount the things that happened this year and it’s a pretty crazy one. The monsters keep attacking the school and they are starting to get the hang of defeating the monsters. One of the craziest monsters brought by Malivore was actually Josie and Lizzie’s mombie. The zombie put Josie in danger and Hope was really terrified when she realized that Josie was buried in the ground.</p><p>Then Spring Break came and Hope found out the truth about what happened two years ago when her room was almost burned down. Josie had a crush on her? That was the only thing Hope could focus on when she heard what happened. She didn’t care that Josie burned her room accidentally; she didn’t even feel mad that Josie’s actually the one who started the rumors between her and Lizzie so Lizzie wouldn’t find out about Josie’s crush to Hope. In fact, it twisted Hope’s heart a little that Josie was really afraid that her sister’s going to go after Hope if she knew that Josie has a crush on Hope. And the fact that Josie was willing to make Hope hate her just to keep her crush on Hope as her own secret surprised Hope. She can’t believe that Josie really had a crush on her so she couldn’t stop herself from asking Josie.</p><p>“You had a crush on me?” Hope asked in disbelief.</p><p>“Of course. Who wouldn’t?” Josie answered directly as if it was the most simple thing to understand in the world, like it was the most obvious and silly thing to ask.</p><p>Hope definitely won’t ever forget Josie’s confession.</p><p>Things with Malivore started to escalate and Hope jumped into Malivore wishing that it would close the portal. She failed and get thrown up by Malivore just to return to a world where everybody forgets her and when she comes back to Salvatore School, she really wants to see Josie first. Even if Josie doesn’t remember her, Hope will try her best to make her remember and convince Josie to help her, things will be easy once Hope has Josie beside her.</p><p>However, what Hope saw hurt her, Josie and Landon was kissing each other and she realized that her world has all moved on without her, nobody remembered her and they never will. And on top of that, Malivore reopened and monsters are still attacking Mystic Falls. Hope felt she is an epic fail and somehow she needs to fix it. After about a month of staying incognito, Lizzie actually remembered her and Hope felt really emotional because of it. They were getting closer since they know that their bad blood was started because of Josie’s lies. So now, they were getting along even though they still bickered nonstop. Plus, Lizzie is the only one who remembered Hope so Hope will take what she can get. Then, Josie blasted everyone’s memories and Hope has to deal with the drama between her, Josie and Landon. They actually had Christmas in July because of Malivore and Santa freakin’ Claus actually showed up and destroyed the Krampus.</p><p>It all started going downhill for both Hope and Josie from that point, Landon went back and Hope stupidly fell into his arms again. Josie was dealing with the aftermath of black magic she was using since she blasted everyone’s memories and Dark Josie emerged. Hope went into Josie’s sub-conscious and they managed to get out safely with Dark Josie locked away inside Josie’s mind and she was working hard up until today to control her dark side.</p><p>Since then, Hope seems to find herself often thinking about Josie and her confession on Spring Break made Hope realized that they were actually crushing each other at the same time but neither of them said anything. Hope kept imagining what if she confessed to Josie about her feeling when they were holding each other’s hands while sitting on the bench on that snowy day. What will happen then?</p><p>Now, Hope finds herself sitting beside Josie on the stairs of the porch under the Christmas lights and they actually talked about what happened on the previous Christmases. At last, Josie can explain fully to Hope the reason why she was acting weird for several years.</p><p>“Hope, do you remember when I brought you hot cocoa and we sat at the bench?” Josie asks.</p><p>“Yeah, what about it Jo?” Hope can recall the memory perfectly in her head.</p><p>“I was crazy nervous to talk to you, I was finding the chance to talk to you after your parents’ and uncle’s deaths but I never seem to find the right time or I don’t have enough courage to talk to you.” Josie confesses embarrassedly as she remembered her 12 year-old’s awkward self who has a huge crush on Hope.</p><p>“I’m glad you brought me that hot cocoa. And I know it was you who burned off the pages in the History books.” Hope says with a sincere smile.</p><p>Josie blushes because Hope actually knows what she did back then, “I just wanted people to stop talking bad things about you and your family and I don’t really have an idea how to stop it.” She tries to cover her face in shame but then Josie continues. “The next year, it was a really bad one. That was the year I burned down your room and Lizzie was telling me that I’m obsessed with you. You know that part, hence the rumor I made to pit you against Lizzie. I was actually looking forward to spend time with you without arising Lizzie’s suspicion and it actually almost work but she just had to blurt out to you on the next year about my ‘deal’ with my parents and that led us to our big fight.”</p><p>“Last year is the most peaceful and chill Christmas we had, isn’t it?” Hope asks Josie with a chuckle.</p><p>“I think so,” Josie nods her head in agreement.</p><p>“Wow, it’s been a crazy year.” Hope says as she stares at Josie under the Christmas light that reflects beautifully on Josie’s warm, brown eyes.</p><p>“I’m sorry, Hope, for all the troubles I’ve caused you these past Christmases.” Josie says softly and gives Hope a hug.</p><p>Hope returns her hug, “I’m also sorry that you had to go through it all by yourself, Jo. It must be so lonely and exhausting for you, keeping up all that secrets and façade.”</p><p>“It’s all worth it.” Josie says with all of her heart as she melts into Hope’s embrace.</p><p>They break the hug and Josie starts speaking again, “Thank you for saving me and not giving up on me when Dark Josie took over. Thank you for helping me cope with my nightmares and guilt.” Josie’s voice is now barely a whisper now.</p><p>“Always, Jo. I’d do it for you all over again.” Hope replies as she gazes into Josie’s eyes.</p><p>Josie then leans in closer toward Hope, “Close your eyes, Hope.”</p><p>“What are you doing?”</p><p>“What I should’ve done four years ago.”</p><p>Josie then presses her lip softly at Hope’s right cheek, so close to her lips and let the kiss linger for a while. She pulls back and says, “Hope Mikaelson, I have been crushing on you since I was 12 and I think the feelings never go away, not when we had our big fight, not when Penelope was dating me, not when I was dating Landon, not when Dark Josie was taking over and I think Malivore itself could not make it went away. I think I’m in love you. I’ve always been.” Josie lets out a shaky breath as she pours all of her feelings out.</p><p>“Jo…” Hope is speechless at Josie’s sweet confession and she can feel the warmth in her heart spreading all over her body. Hope doesn’t have enough words to tell Josie about her feelings so she decided just to act on it directly. Hope slowly caresses Josie’s cheek as she looks into Josie’s brown orbs. She lifts her right hand upward and leans closer toward Josie, “Look up,” she whispers near Josie’s lips. Josie looks up and a mistletoe is hanging over her and Hope says, “I heard that there was this tradition on Christmas if you stand under the mistletoe-“</p><p>“Just shut up and kiss me, Mikaelson.” Josie chuckles as she pulls Hope closer and presses their lips together. It’s a kiss in the making for almost four years and after four Christmases, they finally figure out their feelings toward each other. Both of them break up for air and the clock has strike to midnight.</p><p>Josie grins widely at the auburn-haired girl, “Merry Christmas, Hope Mikaelson.”</p><p>“Merry Christmas, Josie Saltzman.” Hope replies as she gives Josie another kiss.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>I hope that you are satisfied with the fic! Please do let me know what you think. Thank you for reading the fic.<br/>Kudos, comments and bookmarks are all appreciated. Glad to share some of Hosie Christmas goodness with you guys. And btw forgive me if I have some time inconsistencies on the fic, it's kinda confusing since the timeline in Legacies are not that clear.<br/>And here is the link for the Season's Greetings card that Penelope gave Josie: https://images.app.goo.gl/HqhTzvDqYby3SZ2G7</p><p>Once again, Merry Christmas! Have a great time in this holiday, stay safe and healthy!</p></blockquote></div></div>
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